NEARLY 1,000 registered sex offenders are living in the community in Merseyside, the Government revealed last night.

The total of 941 includes 30 of the most serious rapists and paedophiles, who are considered so dangerous they may be secretly watched by detectives.

A report by police and probation services also revealed that one Merseyside offender is hauled back to court every fortnight for failing to register properly. There were 25 convictions or cautions in just 12 months for breaking rules requiring all offenders to tell police their new addresses or pseudonyms.

And in Cheshire, where there are 474 registered sex offenders, of whom six are among the most dangerous, there were a further seven breaches.

The figures, which were broadly similar to other regions around the UK, were released one day after a leading children's charity demanded a £25m cash injection to ensure paedophiles were properly monitored in the community.

But the Home Office immediately insisted the high number of breaches in the year 2004/5 proved that surveillance measures were working well.

Since 2001, sex and violent offenders released from prison have been monitored by Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa), bringing together police, probation and social services.

Yesterday's reports also showed there were 21 sexual offences prevention orders (SOPOs) imposed in the region in 2004/5 - 12 in Merseyside and nine in Cheshire.

They are civil orders preventing offenders from going near children, near a school or possessing a home computer. A breach can result in a five-year jail term.

Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland said: "Mappa represents a big leap forward in the way we protect our communities from re-offending by violent and sex offenders."

However, the NSPCC criticised the Home Office for closely monitoring only the offenders it considered the most dangerous. Last year, the number of these co-called "critical few" offenders fell by 31% across the country to 1,478.

NSPCC spokesman Wes Kewell said that meant more lower-risk offenders, who could start to "track potential victims" without that alarming behaviour being picked up.

"There is a high risk they could be deteriorating in their behaviour. They could be beginning to track potential victims."

The probation union Napo estimated the NSPCC's demands would involve the monitoring of an extra 20,000 offenders, at a cost of about £25m.